Seven Myths of the Crusades by Alfred J. Andrea and Andrew Holt, eds.
Reviewed by Raymond Ibrahim
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2016
As the editors make clear in their preface, Seven Myths of the Crusades is presented as an antidote to the “outpouring of exaggerations, misperceptions, errors, misrepresentations, and fabrications” that proliferate in popular discourse about the Crusades. In the course of seven chapters, each written by a specialist and supported by scholarly notes and fresh research, this short primer examines and exposes the many anachronisms around the Crusades.
Andrea, professor emeritus, University of Vermont, and Holt of Florida State College make their basic assumption clear from the outset stating that the
notion that medieval people … were ‘just like us’ and acted out of motives very much like our own … has led to some basic misunderstandings of the crusades and the people involved in them.
While not all chapters are equally enlightening, the more useful ones deal with large and important themes including whether the Crusaders were motivated by “proto-colonialist greed, irrational fanaticism, or sincere piety.” Paul Crawford examines whether the First Crusade was an “unprovoked offense or overdue defense” against Islam while Mona Hamad and Edward Peters question whether modern-day Muslims actually still hold a grudge against the West because they have “a nine-hundred-year-long grievance.”
A few sections—such as those dealing with the Children’s Crusade and Templar myths—while intrinsically interesting, are less sweeping in their significance. Others do not so much debunk myths as provide up-to-date scholarship: Daniel P. Franke’s “The Crusades and Medieval Anti-Judaism: Cause or Consequence?” for example, does not minimize the plight of European Jews but rather places it in historical context.
Despite President Obama down-playing ISIS atrocities by invoking the Crusades in February 2015, this book convincingly demonstrates that his view runs “counter to the mainstream of today’s scholarly interpretation—a general consensus built upon decades of research, reflection, and debate.”
Thanks for the review Raymond.
I’ll look up the book.
This is off topic, but can anyone suggest two, good sources for the following topics?
1. The spread of Islam after Mohammed
2. Science and Islam
1. What every American needs to know about the Qur’an http://www.c-span.org/video/?314071-10/book-discussion-every-american-needs-know-quran&buy=
2. Mohammedanism by C. Snouck Hurgronje – http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10163 (basically, they overran Rome and Persia and some of those civilization’s Science survived and Islam/Muslims got credited with it)
Thanks, John.
KD
One book written on Islamic Science from an Islamic perspective is: “The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance” by Jim Al-Khalili
You do have to read between the lines and use discernment with this book, but it certainly gives great biographies of the important Islamic thinkers and scientists and shows how some Europeans were aware of them. It does not successfully prove its thesis, that Arabs gave europe the Renaissance, especially since it completely ignores the fact that Europe was hard hit when Islam cut off its supply of papyrus and that any benefit that Islamic scholarship brought to Europe did not make up for Islam causing the dearth of printed materials in the first place. But it does show that Islam had some great thinkers.
He does acknowledge some faults of Islam, such as the fact that while Islam complains that its numeral system was “stolen” by Europe, the numeral system actually came from India, was never widely used in the Islamic world, and Europeans did more to acknowledge the origin of their system than the Islamic world did. Europe mistakenly called our number system “Arabic numerals” when in reality they should be called Indian numerals, but the Arabs never called them that and had no interest in acknowledging the Indian culture that they borrowed from.